Feb. 10, 2007
Box Score | Quotes
The Dayton Flyers overcame a 14-point first half deficit to earn their first road victory of the season with a 69-62 triumph over the St. Bonaventure Bonnies.
The UD bench outscored the starters 41-28 led by freshman Marcus Johnson with 13 points and eight rebounds. Freshman London Warren poured in a season-high 10 points, while sophomore Charles Little added 10 points. Johnson also was the game's top rebounder, with eight. Dayton's top two scorers, Brian Roberts and Monty Scott, were held to five points below Roberts' average alone.
UD improved to 16-8 overall and 6-5 in the Atlantic 10. The Flyers have won three of their last four.
The Flyers trailed by as many as 14 (17-3) in the first eight minutes of the game, but went on a 13-6 run to cut the deficit to 23-17 at halftime. For the first time all year, Roberts and Scott were both held scoreless in a half.
In the first half, UD shot 24 percent and 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, en route to their lowest point total for a half this year. The Flyers' leading scorer after the first 20 minutes was Little with four points.
But in the second half, the Dayton offense started to warm up. The Flyers took the lead for good during a stretch where they made ten straight field goals, including three dunks by Marcus Johnson. Warren began the comeback with a driving three-point play, and three-pointers by Scott and junior Jimmy Binnie helped cut the St. Bonaventure lead to 32-28 with 15:39 to go. The Flyers would continue to chip away on the offensive end and take their first lead 36-34 after Little connected on another field goal.
The Flyers would go up 50-40 behind another scoring surge, this time a 14-6 run with nine minutes to play. After the two squads went back-and-forth on the offensive end, St. Bonaventure rallied to cut the UD lead to 53-49 with 7:16 to go.
Dayton answered with another scoring surge, but would allow the Bonnies to eventually cut the UD lead to 59-55 late in the second half.
That's when the Flyers pulled away for good thanks to a Scott a three-point bucket from the corner and a dunk by Little to put UD ahead 64-55 with 1:30 remaining.
As SBU began fouling to stop the clock, and UD's string of eight straight road losses was about to end, another streak also came to an end. Roberts missed his second free throw attempt of the night, ending his consecutive free throws made string at 34. That tied him with Bobby Joe Hooper's 34 during the 1965-66 season as the second-longest string in Dayton basketball history. Damon Goodwin holds the record of 36 set in 1983-84.
Dayton enjoyed one of its best offensive stretches of the year shooting 73 percent from the field in the second half and scoring 52 points (most this year in one half).
The Flyers took three less shots in the second half, yet scored 35 more points than in the first period.
As a team, UD corralled 12 offensive rebounds and held a 33-28 advantage on the glass over the Bonnies. The Flyer defense forced 16 turnovers as well.
The Flyer win left 17th-ranked Oklahoma State as the last team in Division I to be undefeated at home and winless on the road. After a double-overtime win over Texas Tech on Saturday, the Cowboys are 14-0 at home and 0-4 on the road.
Dayton returns home, where they are 14-0 this season, on Sunday, February 18 against the Atlantic 10-leading Massachusetts Minutemen starting at 2:00 p.m. ET.
